So Long, Gawker, Thanks For the Coverage and the Bylines

Visual approximation of what Hulk Hogan probably feels like. This is purely satire. Please do not sue us, Mr. Hogan.

In the early 00s when I was in journalism school, my professors were feebly trying to bestow me and my fellow students with the skills required to work in print media. Sure, they said, the future of journalism is online. But none of them could quantify what that meant or how to teach it. The school’s curriculum was a great foundation, I guess, but by the time I was done, my skill set was already outdated. I was a media dinosaur.

So I studied Gawker Media. Gawker, and Gawker’s sister sites, presented the framework for what writing online could look like—objective and sarcastic. I suspect anyone who has ever dabbled in independent publishing online is feeling a bit sentimental this week. Almost every writer has a favorite Gawker story. They certainly remember the Gawker story they were most scandalized by.

One thing I think Gawker and its sister sites deserve credit for is consistently covering sex work and giving sex workers bylines. They kept tabs on almost every NYPD-with-an-escort snafu, their vintage Eliott Spitzer coverage was delightful, they interviewed cam girls, espoused the virtues of dominatrix school, and alerted us every time Justin Bieber touched a stripper. Much of this coverage was silly, but the frequency of it and the casualness of its tone helped normalize the idea that sex workers are news-worthy. Gawker Media even had an entire blog dedicated to the adult industry—Fleshbot.

News flash to Peter Thiel, and to our civilian readers: not everybody deserves kindness—especially when you’re in our line of work, knowing so many people are buttressed by institutions that actively harm us. I’m thinking of the Amnesty detractors, the entire Oakland Police Department, and the horrendous Dominique Roe-Sepowitz. So that’s what I’m also going to gratefully take away from Gawker’s legacy. That sometimes, it’s ok to be mean.

Theil is –and always will be –one of those log cabin conservative cis-gays who think that Human Rights Campaign is radical. The epitome of white privileged tech mogul for whom historic sex worker enclaves like the Tenderloin are merely blank canvases for condo conversion and gentrification. The folks at Compton’s Cafeteria weren’t fighting for him.

Libertarians like Theil would either legalize sex work or at least decriminalize it.

As for Gawker I’m glad it got what it deserved.
It’s treatment of Gamergate and other controversies was the last thing to ‘fair and balanced’. Which is basically what you expect from a news source.
So consider me one of those people who considers its passing a blessing.